AFI Top 100: #41
Nominee
So I have not posted in far too long...which I now intend to make up for
because I am on winter break and will be able to watch tons of movies!! Good
stuff.
I saw this movie for the first time when I was little and did not fully understand the humor, so I found it boring and well...black and white. However I realized that I was probably missing out on a great film and decided to give it another go. I mean look at this cast! We have Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, and Jimmy Stewart, some of the best character actors on and off the screen. Oh and that third guy at the end, I guess he is pretty cool too. We also have the simplicity that was early 1940's cinema, elegantly telling a story with likable characters and seamless unnoticeable style, which in some ways is just as hard to achieve as the prominent stylistic choices of today.
The potential was there and as I discovered on my second viewing it certainly delivers. Filled with witticisms, and believe it or not drunken debauchery, this film is *commence Katharine Hepburn voice* chaaaarming. We have the young socialite, Tracy Lord, who is preparing for her wedding to her "ideal man", George Kittredge, when in walks her ex-husband, C.K. Dexter Haven, with the press, Elizabeth Imbrie, and Macaulay Connor. A night of impulse ensues and as the wedding approaches our certainty of who she is going to marry changes rapidly.
The all-star cast gives us the performances that only they can give, along with the supporting cast providing nuanced and enjoyable characters. I would like to shout out to Ruth Hussey as Elizabeth Imbrie for being my favorite character, and Virginia Weidler for a stirring rendition of Lydia the Tattooed Lady.
My only qualm with this film is its outdated sub-message about marrying inside your class. Although realistically people probably still do it seems to say that not only should you but you're not going to find love anywhere else. Maybe my romanticism is showing too much but I don't think that is really the case. You can marry someone from another class and be happy. Or at least it worked out okay for the Disney Princesses.
Overall: A fun film to watch that I promise you will enjoy. Definitely a seminal classic for comedy!
I saw this movie for the first time when I was little and did not fully understand the humor, so I found it boring and well...black and white. However I realized that I was probably missing out on a great film and decided to give it another go. I mean look at this cast! We have Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, and Jimmy Stewart, some of the best character actors on and off the screen. Oh and that third guy at the end, I guess he is pretty cool too. We also have the simplicity that was early 1940's cinema, elegantly telling a story with likable characters and seamless unnoticeable style, which in some ways is just as hard to achieve as the prominent stylistic choices of today.
The potential was there and as I discovered on my second viewing it certainly delivers. Filled with witticisms, and believe it or not drunken debauchery, this film is *commence Katharine Hepburn voice* chaaaarming. We have the young socialite, Tracy Lord, who is preparing for her wedding to her "ideal man", George Kittredge, when in walks her ex-husband, C.K. Dexter Haven, with the press, Elizabeth Imbrie, and Macaulay Connor. A night of impulse ensues and as the wedding approaches our certainty of who she is going to marry changes rapidly.
The all-star cast gives us the performances that only they can give, along with the supporting cast providing nuanced and enjoyable characters. I would like to shout out to Ruth Hussey as Elizabeth Imbrie for being my favorite character, and Virginia Weidler for a stirring rendition of Lydia the Tattooed Lady.
My only qualm with this film is its outdated sub-message about marrying inside your class. Although realistically people probably still do it seems to say that not only should you but you're not going to find love anywhere else. Maybe my romanticism is showing too much but I don't think that is really the case. You can marry someone from another class and be happy. Or at least it worked out okay for the Disney Princesses.
Overall: A fun film to watch that I promise you will enjoy. Definitely a seminal classic for comedy!
Lydia, oh Lydia, oh have you met Lydia?
ReplyDeleteLydia the tattooed lady? :P
You should keep a sub-blog of great, ridiculous moments in movies!